Winner of $1 Million Research Grant Competition Announced

Thea Wilkins is a premier researcher in the field of cotton genomics. She also serves as Co-Director of Cotton Functional Genomics Project for the National Institute for Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering in Pakistan.

A group of researchers working on sequencing the cotton genome has won the 2007 Texas Tech Research Development Fund Competition.

Thea Wilkins, Bayer Crop Science Regents Professor in Genomics, leads a group of seven co-principal investigators on the project which won the $999,000 grant.

“It is vital that we find ways to support our own researchers,” said Dean Smith, vice president for research. “The university is making a major effort to increase its research capacity. By creating internal incentives such as this grant program, we are telling scientists that  we are serious about supporting our researchers and their projects.”

Researchers from across the campus submitted 40 proposals requesting a total of $21.3 million in this year’s competition. Independent reviewers looked at the applications and made recommendations to Smith. The grant money comes from the Research Development Fund, which was created by the Texas Legislature to support research activities in higher education.

“I know choosing among the many incredible research projects that were submitted was a difficult task for our reviewers,” said President Jon Whitmore. “Finding a genome sequence would be a major accomplishment for any researcher. Dr. Wilkins and her co-investigators are in a position to make great headway in this area.”

Texas Tech and the National Center for Genome Resources signed an agreement in September that will establish a framework for specific areas of cooperation in genome sequencing and genome analysis.

“The impact of having the cotton genome sequence cannot be overestimated,” said Wilkins. “Once a genome sequence is found, we can take basic laboratory research and get new cotton varieties into the hands of growers at a significantly accelerated rate. This discovery would open the way for novel applications to utilize cotton as an important renewable resource for food, fuel and fiber.”

The cotton genomics research team also includes

Department of Plant and Soil Science:

• Eric Hequet, research associate professor;
• Noureddine Abidi, research assistant professor;
• Robert Wright, assistant professor;
• Dick Auld, Rockwell Professor of Plant and Soil Science;
• Randy Allen, professor
• Craig Bednarz, associate professor.

Gregory May, program leader for the National Center for Genome Resources in Santa Fe, is also a member of the team.